> in quarto - it's just markdown:

    >    ![Caption](path/to/image.png)

> And here is how you do it in TeX:

    >    \begin{figure}[t]
    >    \includegraphics{path/to/image}
    >    \centering
    >    \end{figure}

This is not the same thing! The LaTeX equivalent to your markdown would be

     \includegraphics{path/to/image.png}

which is arguably simpler and cleaner than the markdown. The figure environment is unnecessary when you just want to put a figure right there. You only need the figure environment when you want your image to "float" to a random place in your page.